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Wednesday, 4 June 2014

(vol 1) CHAPTER 17: “Read. Review. Repeat”

First off let me apologise for the slightly downbeat post I
put up last week. I’m glad I wrote it as it helped me to vent frustration onto
the page. It allowed me to step back and take stock of where I was at that
moment. Of course I’m sorry that it took up your time to do it.

I imagine all unpublished writers hit lows on a regular
basis. That was probably my first one since I started this four months ago. With
an ongoing uphill struggle and the constant feeling of isolation it can smother
you in doubts if other things in your life pile on as well.

I’ve picked myself up and dusted myself off now. In fact,
I’ve had quite a productive weekend and am now much clearer about my plan for
the rest of the year.

It all started last Friday when I dipped my toes into the
world of Flash Fiction. After following a fellow author Craig Anderson
(please read his free book GETTING Lucky; it’s a great story and well
written) I noticed he regularly took part in a weekly writing challenge on
Flash! Friday.

I’ve been watching it for a while and decided last Friday
that I would finally step up and enter a piece; 150 words using just a picture and
word prompt. Although I didn’t win I think it’s fantastic to use for motivation
just once a week. It barely takes time out of my writing as I can get it done
in my Friday lunch break. Going forward I will be posting my entries every
Friday for you to view. Feel free to jump in yourself and flex those writing
muscles.

LOVE BITE

I finally finished typing up the first draft of LOVE BITE, my
vampire short story. It’s taken me forever and I really wish I knew why. It still
needs a little work on the beginning again to match some changes I made to the
final scene but I think it’s good. I’ll hopefully have a good version to get to
beta readers soon.

COVERS

Due to my new plan I found some time on Saturday to start
working on book covers for each of the seven stories going into UNCANNY TALES: vol 1. It was fun playing around with images and fonts, trying out
different things until I (and the wife) felt it looked good. I like the four
I’ve finished so far and even managed to do one up for CONDOLENCE, the zombie
story I entered time the SFX magazine competition. I’ll be doing a bigger
piece on book cover design in an upcoming post.

NEW PLAN

This is what really got me out of that rut I was moping in. I
had been so caught up in putting out a cheap e-book of collected stories in
time for Christmas that I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was actually
hoping to achieve.

I’ve recently read a couple of fantastic books on indie
publishing that have opened my eyes to certain things (more on that next week)
and I now know how I personally need to go about things.

So, a 99p collection is out. In its place will be a free
collection with exactly the same content.

“That’s not much of a dramatic change,” I hear you cry. And
you’d be right if that was all but you didn’t let me finish.

You see I can’t just give my seven stories to a group of
family and friends and hope that only their feedback will help me to get the
best out of my work. They are great beta readers even if sometimes I need to
coax more out of them then they would openly give and I wouldn’t trade them for
the world.

But I need to reach more people, be seen by more eyes and be
discovered by readers who like nothing more than to soak up story after story
after story. Thank god I discovered Wattpad.

I hope that, by putting my stories up for a sea of readers to
view that I will get unbiased, fearless, brutal reviews of my work.

And of course, if it’s up free on one website then I don’t
feel I can go on to repackage them together later on down the line and charge
for it. People will just go back to the free version. I would.

I’ll still keep my core beta readers (sorry guys but you’re
not off the hook yet) but hopefully I can get a more mixed opinion on the basics
from strangers who don’t know me from Jack. And, if nothing else, it’s
exposure. It would be great if someone sees one story and goes onto the next
and the next and the next until they're e-mailing me asking “Do you have a book
coming out anytime soon?”

CAMP NANOWRIMO

And because I don’t think that’s enough for me to be getting
on with I will also be entering Camp NaNoWriMo this July. 30 days with a self-imposed
target; should be fun.

Whilst I’ve taken part in six November NaNoWriMo’s I’ve never
tried Camp NaNo but as I’ve had an idea for a novella bouncing around in my
head that I thought was too big for the collection and too small for a 50,000
November NaNo, I’m going to try that.

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The main thing is that I feel like I’m back on track. I’m
absorbing more with a whole lot of podcasts coming out of my ears and I’m
reading books about writing/selling books in between reading other books.
Crazy.

As always I thank you for following me on this and putting up
with the growing pains. Overall I’m enjoying myself and I hope I can look back
next year and the year after and think “Wow, I’m glad I persevered.”

Feel free to leave comments below and, whether you are a
budding writer or not, I encourage you to try out some of the sites I’ve
mentioned. What could it hurt to challenge yourself to a 150 word flash fiction
piece, complete a short novel in July or post the first three chapters of that
book you always wanted to write and see what people think?